After a broken engagement, literary professor Elsy prefers getting lost in a good romance novel, especially those written by her favourite author Rachel Flowers, as opposed to seeking love in real life. So, when everyone in her book club is busy with their own lives and bails on their annual reading retreat, Elsy decides to go solo. But, on her way to the cabin, Elsy’s car breaks down in a quaint little town…which inexplicably happens to be the fictional town of Eloraton from Rachel Flowers’ novels. After the author’s untimely death, Eloraton and its fictional inhabitants are almost frozen in time, stuck in Rachel Flowers’ unfinished fifth and final book. While her car is being fixed, Elsy is determined to figure out how the series was supposed to end and give all the characters (even the new character, a handsome yet grumpy bookstore owner named Anders who doesn’t want Elsy to cause ripples in the story) a happily ever after….and maybe Elsy will find her own happily ever after along the way.
A Novel Love Story is a magical realism contemporary romance featuring the books about books and “adversaries to lovers” tropes. This would be perfect for fans of magical realism or fantasy books like The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer, The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross, or The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna as well as fans of contemporary romances like Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams, The Wrong Mr. Right by Stephanie Archer, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren, and Only and Forever by Chloe Liese. A Novel Love Story features themes and topics like fantasy (or fiction) versus reality, past versus present, love and heartbreak, stories, fate versus freewill, growing up, loneliness and isolation, friendship, grief and lost love, sense of self, and happily ever after.
Adult romance readers of all ages are totally going to eat this book up! Elsy, the main character in A Novel Love Story, gets to live every romance readers’ not so secret fantasy of literally escaping into their favourite fictional worlds and getting to interact with their favourite fictional characters (and perhaps even a book boyfriend) in real life. A Novel Love Story as a whole was very bookish (the main characters are bookworms and most of the novel is literally set in a fictional town), which I think a lot of readers, like me, will love; there are also a ton of great bookish quotes in the novel, which I can’t wait to write in my reading journal! Elsy’s experiences of finding comfort in and wanting to escape into fictional worlds as well as feeling left behind, lonely, and heartbroken to be very relatable (and I think that other readers will too). Additionally, her book club, the Super Smutty Book Club, sounded super cool and totally makes me want to join a book club in the near future!
A Novel Love Story had a very magical or fantastical vibe, and I thought that the plot was very unique in that Poston almost had to write two books in one (Elsy’s story as well as the Rachel Flowers story). The mystery elements surrounding the fictional town of Eloraton (e.g., what was the author’s plan for the unfinished book 5 and how does the new character Anders fit into the Rachel Flowers universe?) because they kept me engaged and guessing throughout. I won’t spoil anything, but I thought that the ending of Elsy’s story was simply perfect.
The only downside for me was that A Novel Love Story could be slow at times, and it wasn’t packed with action. Furthermore, chapters with flashbacks and Elsy’s inner musings interspersed throughout (albeit important) seemed like they slowed down the pace of the novel a bit.
A Novel Love Story is the first Ashley Poston book that I’ve read, and it definitely won’t be my last as it did not disappoint. A Novel Love Story is a “must add” to romance readers’ summer TBR lists!
A Novel Love Story is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of June 25th 2024.
Will you be picking up A Novel Love Story? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction…literally, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics.
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
